Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood

Four of the last eight American League Most Valuable Players have won the award while playing for the Texas Rangers. You'd think this was a dynasty in the making, instead, the Rangers are battling just to get out of the cellar at this point with no relief in sight.

Now, I know this is Dubbya's old team, but I didn't expect the voting controversy to carry over into his home state.

The way I always heard it, the Most Valuable Player is not the vote for the best player in the league, it's supposed to be the player most valuable to their ball club. There's no denying that A-Rod is the best overall player in the majors, but what do you get if you take him off the Rangers? The same last place team you have with him, only with more money to try to fix some of its problems.

That's the simplest way for me to explain who should win the award. What would this player's team be without him? Take Shannon Stewart off of the Twins and they don't make the playoffs. Sure, you can argue that if A-Rod was on the Twins they might win the World Series, but in the games that mattered most for the Rangers, the games that could've kept them in the race beyond the All-Star break, Rodriguez was anything but valuable, in fact, I'd even say he was more Mendoza than mediocre.

That's when his team needed him. That's when they needed a deep fly. Instead, you get numbers that don't add up to anything but another individual award for the shortstop, and another last place finish for his team.

The MVP should be for contenders, not a player so good his team finished dead last.

Marv Lewis: Coach of the Decade

Chad predicted it, Rudi ran with it, but it was another Johnson, Jeremi Johnson who made one of the more spectacular plays of the day, tip-toeing down the sideline and launching himself past the pilon for the touchdown. Considering that Jeremi is 5-11, 270-pounds, it makes the feat of his feet even more amazing.

But it's the fact that Jeremi's coach, Marvelous Marv Lewis gets the most out of his players, that he can take out their only star, Corey Dillon, and find a better running game. The fact that he can lose his only defensive name, Takeo Spikes, and actually improve the defense. The fact that he turned Peter Warrick back into the Seminole we knew and Chad Johnson transformed into someone who could not only out-talk (if that's possible) his cousin Keyshawn, but out-play him as well.

The Bengals are now tied for first in their division, and with the injury to Kyle Boller, Tommy Maddox looking like an insurance salesman under center instead of a quarterback, and the uncertainty of the Browns, it looks like Cincinnati could ride this momentum all the way until January.

Welcome to the Jungle.

Super Bowl Shuffle

The first weeks of the season and everyone was hollering about the Eagles demise, how the Falcons could hold out until Vick came back to make their playoff run, and how with the Bills improved defense, this could be the year that they make the run that Jim Kelly and crew could never finish. But now as we take a look down through the final weeks of the season, it just goes to show once again how the NFL season is a marathon and not a sprint.

The Rams, who once looked lost, seemed to have recaptured their swagger. The Seahawks continue to impress, the Panthers, doing their best to imitate the Bears of a couple years ago, continue to win games by inches (and will also lose badly in the playoffs), and the Bucs pretty much have to win the remainder of their games just to have a shot at the title.

In the AFC, it's the Patriots and not the Chiefs who I think have the best shot at playing in February. Tom Brady throws the best deep ball in the game today, their defense can stop anyone, and they just seem to play with the magical quality, that charisma and confidence that they know they can win any game, and it exudes down from their coach to their quarterback and on right through to their special teams. And just think, this roll all got started by a missed Miami field goal. One kick that could've sealed the fates of both teams involved.